London’s reign as most desirable city for work enters tenth year in boost for Square Mile

London has once again held on to its crown as the world’s most desirable city for work, according to a major study, in a boost for the capital’s reputation as a global financial hub.

The capital has retained its title for 10 years, since the launch of the “Decoding Global Talent” survey by Boston Consulting Group, The Network and The Stepstone Group.

The latest edition, surveying more than 150,000 workers from 188 countries, showed the top ten was rounded out by Amsterdam, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, New York, Berlin, Singapore, Barcelona, Tokyo and Sydney.

Other UK cities to breach the top 100 included Edinburgh at 53rd, Birmingham at 58th, Belfast at 79th and Glasgow at 83rd.

After dropping to fifth place in 2021, the UK overtook Germany to become the fourth most popular country. Despite struggles in attracting workers from within the EU following Brexit, the UK is now the most highly ranked European nation for global talent.

Australia took the top spot, followed by the US and Canada.

The study found that as many as 1 in 6 (17 per cent) of global professionals willing to relocate saw the UK as one of their top three destinations. Those that most favour the UK include professionals in science and research (15 per cent), finance (14 per cent), Media (14 per cent) and Legal (13 per cent).

Respondents said the top drivers for relocation were the quality of the job opportunities themselves (71 per cent), quality of life (58 per cent) and overall safety and security (44 per cent).

The news comes as the UK grapples with labour shortages that pose a risk to growth, which Stepstone chief executive Sebastian Dettmers said importing global talent could help address.

He commented: “It’s encouraging to see that British employers can continue to attract the best talent from the global workforce, in part due to London’s long-standing reputation as a multi-cultural hub for international trade and its strong employment offering. This said, there’s still work to do in remedying labour shortages in key industries, particularly social care, logistics, and hospitality.

“The world’s most important economies are facing a major challenge: the great people shortage. This looming gap in the global labour market is primarily due to declining birth rates and mismatches between job supply and demand. However, the rise and normalisation of global remote working will help to expand the available talent pool, which looks set to benefit employers, governments, and workers alike.”